European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2017 (SOCTA). Crime in the age of technology

Europol's European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2017 (SOCTA) was published in March 2017.

Europol’s Director Rob Wainwright said 'The SOCTA 2017, Europol’s flagship product, represents the outcome of the largest data collection on serious and organised crime ever undertaken in the EU. Europol has been able to use its singular intelligence capability as the European information hub for criminal intelligence to analyse and identify the key crime threats facing the EU. These include cybercrime, illicit drugs, migrant smuggling, organised property crime, and the trafficking in human beings'.

Key findings
+ More than 5,000 international Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) with more than 180 nationalities are currently under investigation in the EU.
+ The number of organised crime groups that are involved in more than one criminal activity (poly-criminal) has increased sharply over the last years (45% compared to 33% in 2013)
+ For almost all types of organised crime, criminals are deploying and adapting technology with ever greater skill and to ever greater effect. This is now, perhaps, the greatest challenge facing law enforcement authorities around the world, including in the EU.
+ Cryptoware (ransomware using encryption) has become the leading malware in terms of threat and impact. It encrypts victims user generated files, denying them access unless the victim pays a fee to have their files decrypted.
+ Document fraud has emerged as a key criminal activity linked to the migration crisis.
+ Document fraud, money laundering and the online trade in illicit goods and services are the engines of organised crime.

Europol: Press Release, 09.03.17: Crime in the age of technology – Europol’s Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2017 https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/crime-in-age-of-technology-%E2%80%93-europol%E2%80%99s-serious-and-organised-crime-threat-assessment-2017

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